Goats Take Over Idaho Neighborhood

Let there be goats! One neighborhood in Idaho recently got a bunch of unexpected visitors, in the form of about one hundred goats roaming around a local neighborhood, grazing and causing quite a stir.

A local reporter named Joe Parris, tweeted photos of the goats roaming around the quiet street, explaining that they were going from house to house and eating everything they found. The goats were “snacking on lawns and flower bushes, and stripping the leaves from trees,” before moving on to find more to eat.

The goats did not just appear randomly though. They appeared courtesy of a company aptly named We Rent Goats. The company lets people rent goats to easily “clear weeds and help with fire suppression on public property and private lands.” Apparently, these goats actually wondered from their actual job site and ended up in the quiet neighborhood, grazing as they went.

News of the goats’ adventure first appeared on Twitter, where it sparked a social media firestorm about the origin of the goats and why they appeared. Before it was revealed that the goats were rented, social media users speculated that the goats had simply dropped from the sky (mostly via parachute). However, pictures were eventually uploaded of the goats being herded into a truck by We Rent Goats employees with a small metal ramp, taking the goats back to where they belong.

While renting goats may not be an everyday idea, livestock is a rather effective tool for landscaping, just not usually in suburban America. Goats are known to eat weeds and other seeds that homeowners want off their lawns, and other livestock won’t eat.

The goats, one hundred and eighteen in total, were actually sent to a local stormwater retention area, but a break in an old fence made it possible for the goats to break free and seek weeds in the nearby neighborhood.